No one uses mobile? Social is a fad? Really? (Small Business E-Commerce Link Digest – March 18, 2011)

Earlier this week, I noted most people don’t use the mobile web and why you should ignore that statistic. I also looked at the growth of social commerce and how those two facts are related. And all over the web right now, loads of smart people are showing how you can take advantage. Here’s the latest:

• O’Reilly’s Radar blog (I love that name) has a great interview with Facebook’s global experience manager Paul Adams all about designing for social (and anything else really). He recommends starting with human behavior. I have long said social is people. It seems like Facebook agrees. And they oughta know, eh?
• Of course, knowing that you have to start with people is only good if you know what those people do. Fortunately, Google’s Retail blog looks at mobile commerce best practices to help you understand how customers are using their mobile devices.
• Despite my “no one uses mobile” claims earlier this week, at least one industry sees lots of mobile use already. The travel industry shows that 56% of business customers search and book hotels via mobile devices. I think it’s a sign of what’s to come for industries beyond travel, too.
• Of course, mobile search is only useful if your site shows up there. Fortunately, long-time Friend of Thinks Linda Bustos looks at whether a mobile site will help your mobile search ranking.
• And, finally, just in case you think this is a lot of hype, check out Business Insider’s interview IBM’s Mark Dean. Mark helped invent the PC and he says,
  

  “The device of choice in the world is moving from the PC to the handheld device. The cellphone, or the smartphone. The growth of this handheld device is much higher than the growth of the PC and the handheld device will be the device of choice for people to live their lives.”

  Just sayin’

Have a great weekend everyone. See you back here next week!

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